Edwardo: the horriblest boy in the whole wide world

John Birmingham (text & illus)

Jonathan Cape, UK: 2006

ISBN: 9780224070416 

Genres: humour, picture book

Issues: assumptions, identity, judging, perceptions, self-esteem

Edwardo is nasty, cruel to animals, dirty, untidy and mean. He is quite sure he is the horriblest boy in the whole wide world because that's what everybody tells him. Frequently.

So he becomes nastier, crueller, dirtier, untidier and meaner. Until one day someone interprets one of his horrible acts quite differently and Edwardo finds it's just as easy for him to be kind, helpful, clean and tidy as it is to be all the other things. In some ways this story is almost more relevant to the adults reading the story than to the children listening but it will certainly provide much food for thought.

This is very much a narrative about the power of praise and criticism. The illustrations are cartoonish in style but their very simplicity emphasises the roles that perspective and interpretation play in how we react to what we see.

Highly recommended.